FLASHBACK 2012: Obama's joke — "the 1980s are now calling..."

Flashback: Romney calling Russia 'our number one geopolitical foe' prompted media onslaught in 2012

Nearly 10 years ago, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney scolded his future opponent for telling Russian President Dmitry Medvedev he’d have more “flexibility” toward the country after his election.

“This is to Russia, this is, without question, our number one geopolitical foe,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on March 26, 2012. “They fight every cause for the world’s worst actors. The idea that [President Barack Obama] has some more flexibility in mind for Russia is very, very troubling, indeed.”

Pressed by Blitzer, Romney then said the “greatest threat” America faced was a nuclear-armed Iran. But the perceived damage was done.

While the Russia comment was ripped by Democrats and the media as a gaffe underscoring Romney’s foreign policy inexperience at the time, it’s viewed now as prescient. It’s also seen by critics as a stark example of the mainstream press echoing Democratic talking points, particularly in light of subsequent years of fervent Russiagate media coverage and bellicose actions by autocratic Russian leader Vladimir Putin, like this week’s invasion of Ukraine.